Story Time 2: Tell a Tale
by Yuja
Summary: It was supposed to be a one-time assignment for his creative writing class. Just write it and get it done. Too bad the teacher actually LIKED the completed work. Now Isaac must write an on-going fiction about heroes traveling to rescue friends and save the world. That won't be too hard… right? [Modern college AU]
1. Of Prologues and Pencils

What can I say? Story Time was so much fun, I just had to come back for seconds. This story picks up shortly after where Story Time left off. I recommend reading that one first. Unlike the previous one-shot, though, this will be an on-going story that may never really end. There is no preplanned plot line, and no predetermined ending. I'm pretty much just going to be throwing whatever comes to mind at the characters, all while slowly but surely progressing Isaac's completion of the _odd little story_ he has going.

In other words, I'm just going to have fun with this one. Hope you enjoy reading! =) And even if this is me playing around, constructive crit and other feedback is still as loved as ever. I do prefer to give responses through author notes, but I don't mind using the reply system if requested.

**Obligatory disclaimer for this and all following chapters:** Camelot and Nintendo own Golden Sun and all related characters and places. I'm just the broke college grad of a fan who refuses to stop tossing the characters into strange situations.

**Warnings:** Language, egos, mentions of bullying, possibly some alcohol, all-nighters, caffeine addictions, relationships (including good, bad, and ugly), and other stuff I won't know about until I write it. I don't think it's physically possible for me to write something without any drama creeping in, and this is a college setting anyway. In short, that T rating is there for a reason.

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Honestly, if Garet really thought about it, he should have seen it coming. He'd been coerced into spending an entire day helping Isaac write the stupid assignment the first time. It only made sense that the universe would see fit to make it come back to haunt them.

"The Hell am I reading?"

Garet took a long, drawn out sip through the straw of his orange soda, taking his sweet time in setting the cup back on the cheap cafeteria table. Or was this technically a university food court? Eh, details.

"Isaac's writing class." Felix's flat expression from over the stapled papers didn't budge. Garet graciously humored him with further explanation. "He wrote that for the first assignment, and now he has to write the sequel for the second."

He had to admit, it was impressive how much had been covered during that first assignment submission. In the story, a group of friends (Robin, Gerald, and Jasmine) had ventured into a mountain cave above their village home (Vale). The friends were exploring on behalf of a local scholar (Sclater), but in the process led the way for a small band of thieves (Satyuros, Menadi, and Garcia) to sneak in and steal several priceless treasures being held in a special vault. In the ensuing confrontation, one of the thieves (Garcia) was revealed to be the brother of one of the friends (Jasmine), and the scholar (Talks-Too-Much Sclater) and the friend (Jasmine) were kidnapped. The story concluded with the remaining friends (Robin and Gerald) setting out to save the captives (mainly Jasmine) and retrieve the stolen treasures (because crap like that was important, and child endangerment wasn't really a concern).

All in all, a job well done.

"And I'm one of the villains in this… because?"

Garet blinked his surprise. "You caught that part?"

Felix's flat look turned even flatter, if that were possible. "You named him Garcia, older brother of the character Jasmine."

"So?"

Garet made a mental note to work on improving his innocent act in the future. As it was, Felix slid the papers back to Garet across the table with an irritable flick of the wrist. Then he started stabbing at foodstuff on his plate.

"You use my middle name, and then use a J-name for the sister. You two are the worst when it comes to creativity. And stop stealing my dictionaries!"

Garet gave a cheeky grin. "Right. Says the guy who named his pet rock Pewter." Oooh, that one earned him a rather burning glare. If anything, Garet's grin grew even broader at the sight. "And that right there is why you're a villain." He conveniently left out any response about suspiciously missing textbooks.

Any attempt by Felix to defend his questionable villainy, or lack there of, was quickly interrupted by a cheery, sing-song greeting. "Helloooo, boys!" A third tray of food appeared at their table, shortly followed by none other than Jenna. She flipped her red ponytail back over her shoulder as she took her seat, looking briefly between the two males before sorting through what she had purchased. "Garet, what did you do to break my brother this time?"

Garet sputtered indignantly at the accusation. "What makes you think _I_ did anything?"

"Well, he's glaring a slow and painful death at you, for starters. And secondly," she paused in her meal preparations to spare him a knowing smirk, "you two have been sitting here unsupervised for over a minute."

Garet swallowed whatever rebuttal he had been thinking up. Okay, so he'd give her that one.

With a lone finger, he nudged the short stack of fiction in her direction. "Was hoping to get some feedback and ideas for Isaac's writing homework. Care to give it a read through? He needs a sequel chapter by Friday night."

Jenna grimaced, but it was one of sympathy for their friend. For them, it was already lunchtime on Wednesday. That deadline only gave Isaac another two and a half days, if that. And knowing Isaac as well as they did, that meant his days and nights were most likely already to the point of blurring into one long stretch of time.

"Ouch. That soon?" She picked up the offered manuscript with one hand and skimmed the first page. "Where is Isaac, anyway?"

The roommate of the teen in question poked at his own food. "Back at the dorms, working on something due this afternoon."

"Did he eat yet?"

"Probably not. Pretty sure he's been up since yesterday again, too."

Jenna dropped the papers to the table with an offended huff. "We'll just see about _that_."

* * *

"Lunch break!"

Isaac jumped back in his seat as a brown paper bag dropped onto his third page of some dead mathematician's theorem. So help him, there had better not be anything soaking through the bottom of that bag. He countered with a half-hearted, "Garet, I'm busy."

The redhead flopped into his own desk chair and proceeded to pop open the lid to a Styrofoam container he was holding. "Yeah, with eating. Duh. Oh goodie, I got the noodles!"

Heaven help him… "I have homework. I don't have time right now for a lunch break." As he spoke, Isaac lifted the bag with hesitant dread. Fortunately, the bottom seemed to be dry, and checking inside revealed all of the containers still safely sealed.

"Ah ah ah," Garet tutted, jabbing a plastic fork in Isaac's direction. "No excuses, or I'll eat all that food myself and tell Jenna you threw it away." It was a low blow, and Isaac's scandalized glare only confirmed it as such, but some things called for desperate measures. "Hey, not my call. Crazy girl's orders. I'll play nice only if you agree to eat as you work."

Isaac seemed to ponder the offered compromise. The food really did smell good, though, and he really was hungry once he stopped long enough to notice. Rather than agree to anything, he picked out a container and set the bag aside. "Who all was there today?"

"Just Felix and Jenna. Ivan was at the library with some friend of his. He may stop by later with some notes I asked for."

"You shouldn't be using him like that,"

"Kid's a genius, and don't act like you haven't asked for the same."

Isaac glared his disapproval at Garet over a forkful of fried rice. "Yeah, because I missed the class and he offered first. You're just being lazy."

Garet waved it off. "Whatever."

"What about Mia?"

The beat of silence following that question wasn't reassuring. Isaac looked up from his rice. Garet was slowly slurping up a forkful of noodles, but Isaac could read his friend just as well as Garet could do vice versa. Garet was stalling. "Garet?"

Garet poked at the noodles still in the cup. "Don't freak," he said in what was supposed to be a calming manner, but from the look on Isaac's face it wasn't working. Best to not give the imagination time to run away with him. "It's not the usual problems, just dehydration. She should be getting out of the hospital this evening."

"What? When did this happen? Why didn't anyone say—"

"Calm down, hero boy. She's going to be fine." Isaac sulked, but let the topic drop. "Hey, how's that story going?" The grimace was unmistakable, and Garet chuckled at the change. "That bad?"

"I made some revisions to the first chapter, but that's about it. The characters made it to the next town, but now I have no clue what they should do while there."

Garet raised a curious brow as he finished off another bite of noodles. "Who says they need to do anything? Why not end the misery and have them catch the thieves?"

"Because," Isaac sighed, "if the teacher wanted it wrapped up I wouldn't have needed to write a continuation. I even asked if I should write the conclusion." He leaned back in his chair to stare at a point high on the wall. "'_What's the fun in that?'_ Teacher's words, not mine."

"That sucks." Isaac nodded his agreement with Garet's sympathies.

A knock sounded at the door. Having not locked it after returning from lunch, Garet called for whoever it was to come on in. A moment later, a blonde head of hair appeared through the narrow opening. "Ivan! Come on in and join us. We were just discussing Isaac's latest torment."

"You mean, other than yourself?" Ivan smirked teasingly, while Garet deadpanned. "I brought those notes you asked for, Garet. And yours, too, Isaac."

As expected, Garet brightened at the prospect. "Dude, you are a lifesaver. Thanks, kiddo." He reached out a hand to accept the offered papers… which were snapped back out of reach with a disapproving look. "What? What'd I do?"

"I already had to deal with some jerks from chem. today. I'm not giving you this so you can make fun of me, too."

It was no secret that Ivan was teased, although "bullied" was probably the better term most days. Not only was he short for his age, but he had skipped probably two or three grades by the time he had finished high school. All in all, Ivan was a miniature genius, and it didn't do him many favors when surrounded by the wonderful world of college egos.

"What'd they do this time?" Isaac asked.

Ivan shrugged. "It's nothing."

Isaac wasn't buying it. Ivan wasn't looking at them, and Isaac knew darn well that the dorm room carpet wasn't that interesting. "Ivan…"

"They took my pencil!" Isaac and Garet blinked. Of all the things a group of bullies could do, that certainly wasn't what they had been expecting. It didn't lessen the effect of Ivan's visible distress, though. "You know, my wooden mechanical pencil? The one I use every day?"

There was a beat before recognition dawned on Garet's face. "Oh! You mean that wand-ish, mini-staff-ish thing? With the curl at the end?" Lame description, but Ivan nodded all the same.

"I set it down so I could pack up my bag after class, and one of them snatched it before I could stop them."

Isaac was frowning heavily by then. "Did you get it back?"

Ivan shook his head. A miserable sniffle could be heard. "They said they didn't have it, even with them standing right there and being all smug about it. There wasn't anyone else still in the room to see or back me up, though." Even if there had been, they all knew it was unlikely anyone would have stepped in. That part went without saying.

With some more prodding, the two roommates managed to get Ivan to disclose who the suspected thieves were. Garet groaned and stretched theatrically as he stood. "Well, this has been a very lovely day today. Would be a _shame_ for me to allow three poor souls to sit around and miss it. You coming, Isaac?"

Isaac declined with a smile. He still had another seven or so pages of equations to go, after all. Garet had it covered. Knowing him, Isaac would only get in the way of the show. Besides, Ivan was staring at Garet with so much admiration and gratitude right then. He didn't even seem to mind when another quip was made about his age ("Come, Rugrat! We must show that evil never prevails!").

As his friends departed, Isaac turned his attention down to the cup of fried rice still in his hands. He prodded the food, deep in thought. Finally, he took one last, large bite, set the container aside, and opened his laptop.

Math could wait. He knew what Robin and Gerald could do while staying in that next village now.


	2. A Tale of Too Many Dictionaries

Disclaimer and warnings from Chapter One still stand.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Garet pondered the text before him. The black ink, in turn, pondered right back at him. How was it Felix had oh so eloquently worded it yesterday?

"The Hell am I reading?"

Yeah. That.

Isaac deflated where he sat. "You hate it."

"You gave Ivan a staff!" Garet skimmed the page again with a look of gross uncertainty. "And I don't mean that in the innuendo way…"

Isaac rolled his eyes with an added shake of the head. "You're hopeless."

"The Shaman's _Rod_? Please tell me it's only compensating for his height."

"_Garet_!"

So yeah, Ivan had been inserted into Isaac's story as a new character. The name change wasn't very creative, having only switched out the "v" for a "w" to make him "Iwan," but whatever. Isaac got up to pour himself another coffee refill while Garet finished reading.

"How many cups is that?" Garet asked, distracted and not looking up from the papers.

Isaac shrugged. "Heck if I know. Lost count sometime back around sunrise."

"You're going to have a killer of a migraine by the time vacation rolls around."

He couldn't exactly disagree there. "You are such a mother hen."

"Cluck, cluck."

The unenthused clucking was followed by an extended pause. "I take it back," Isaac amended. "You're just a snarky ass."

It spoke volumes, how little that assessment affected Garet. "Damn straight. Here, you made a typo in this line."

The story had progressed another chapter's worth overnight. Robin and Gerald had safely arrived in Vault, the first village the duo was to visit outside of their home. There they met Iwan, a merchant's apprentice who had been tasked with the recovery of a stolen item. The two heroes helped Iwan in his investigation, in the process revealing a trio of bandits responsible for a mass robbery spree. After defeating the bandits and recovering the stolen goods, Iwan departed to locate his master, and Robin and Gerald continued on their merrily urgent way.

"Did I really say this stuff yesterday?" Isaac looked away from the corrections on his laptop to Garet's expression of pained embarrassment. "Evil never prevails? Stealing is wrong?"

"You were pretty enthusiastic, yeah." Isaac chuckled. "Don't worry, I don't think Ivan will rat you out for the corny hero you apparently are."

Garet grumbled what was probably supposed to be some snarky comeback. "What's with the village name this time?" he asked sometime later, meanwhile turning to the final page.

"Descriptive name," Isaac answered as though it were obvious. "It has a surrounding cliff wall and an actual prison in the underground."

Garet rotated the page and tilted his head to read at odd angles, all the while pulling a face as though the words were insulting his… well… face. "'Vault' just sounds… I dunno. It's a little too active for such a boring village; like they're about to vault over some hurdle or something. You should try another language again."

Isaac did a double-take at the small stack of books Garet had stood to grab from the top of his bookcase. "Would you stop stealing Felix's dictionaries?!"

"Excuse me?" Garet looked offended and genuinely hurt. "What makes you think these were Felix's to start with? Don't jump to conclusions, Isaac. It's not nice."

Isaac snatched away one of the books and held it up to present the inside of the paperback cover. The name "Felix" was plain to see, right across from the large print stating the title, _English-Spanish Dictionary_.

"He was done with it."

The French dictionary was much the same.

"Thought I'd brush up on my _France-ay_."

The German dictionary included a last name.

"Borrowed."

The Japanese dictionary featured a flip-book animation of stick figures in the bottom corners.

"Konnichiwa."

"Okay, look," Isaac slapped the book down with the rest of them on the windowsill beside him. He'd ask Jenna later as to why she'd drawn stick figures chasing each other one direction on foot, and then back across by car. "You gotta stop swiping these things. Either he's going to end up having a stroke about it, or you're going to end up mysteriously disappearing. Either way, he's going to be complaining about it to me."

The redhead looked genuinely confused. "How is Felix complaining worse than me disappearing?"

"I mean it, Garet."

Garet gave a drawn out, overly dramatic, exasperated sigh. "_Fiiiine_! I'll put them back in his bag at lunch today."

That was pretty much as good as it was going to get, at least as far as _Garet-survives-another-day_ scenarios went. Isaac nodded his approval of the compromise.

That was when a new voice chimed in. "At least he wouldn't make you help with hiding the body."

Both boys froze. With a sense of shocked dread, their heads turned in unison toward what was supposed to be a _closed_ and _locked_ door. Surely, that wasn't the voice of—

"JENNA!?"

If ever there was an innocently wicked grin, it was the grin proudly being displayed on Jenna's face in that moment. As if that wasn't enough, Jenna's face happened to be leaning in through the space that most definitely was _not_ a closed and locked door. "Good morning!"

Garet and Isaac alike spluttered and floundered like a couple of deep ocean fish out of water.

"What the Hell, woman?!"

"We could have been getting dressed!"

Jenna's grin increased tenfold at Isaac's particular outburst. "Then it would have been a _very_ good morning."

Isaac may have turned beet red at that, but Jenna was too busy dodging a pillow from Garet to know for sure. Pillow cleared, she bolted in and tackled Garet as he was grappling for more of the overstuffed ammo. Of course, that was also when Ivan decided to show up.

"I get the feeling I missed something." He edged into the room, sidestepping when necessary to avoid a stray flailing limb.

Isaac could honestly do little more than a literal facepalm. "You could say that."

* * *

Mia really was a sweetheart. Anyone who tried to say otherwise needed a brain scan, followed by an impossibly large number of psychological treatments, the majority of which Garet knew he could never begin to pronounce. Mia probably could, though. Speaking in tongues and calling it medical jargon seemed about par for the course for a med student. For now though, only the sound of her breathy laughter danced through the depressingly plain hospital room. The other bed in the small space sat empty, curtains wide open in preparation to welcome its next eventual occupant.

Garet seriously wondered where he came up with half of these odd thoughts.

Mia's merriment settled into soft chuckles, and she leaned into the pillows at her back. "That does sound like something Jenna would do."

Garet chuckled as well. "Yeah, well, Isaac looked about ready to die on the spot. The poor guy's hilarious at being embarrassed."

"I'm sure he is." She used her elbows to brace herself enough to free her hair from behind her. Her black locks draped loosely over her shoulders, and it struck Garet just how bizarre the look was when compared to her usual style.

The redhead shifted uneasily in his seat, causing the cheap plastic chair to creak beneath him. "So when are they letting you out of here again?"

Mia's serene smile dipped into a disappointed frown. "Tonight."

"Uh huh, right. Except that's what the story was yesterday, too."

Mia rolled her eyes. "Just don't go trying to freak Isaac out with it. I really was only supposed to stay the one day."

"I claim full rights to freak him out if you're still here tomorrow."

"Garet…"

"I mean it, Mia." He pointed at her as he said it, leaving no room for argument. "You gotta take care of yourself. And if it takes a freak out from Mr. Hero to make that happen, then a freak out it is. Besides, you have to read this thing he's cooking up for that writing class. He added Ivan to it last night."

"Oh? What did Ivan think of it?"

Garet prepared to dive into what was surely meant to be another one of his humorous tales, when suddenly… he stopped. His eager smile gave way to an uncertain, curious frown. "Actually," he tilted his head in thought, trying to recall the end of that morning's scene at the dorms, "I don't think he even knows about it yet."

* * *

"Why am I in this?"

Isaac swiveled his desk chair to face the guest currently perched on the edge of Garet's half-lofted bed.

"You caught that?"

Ivan's feet were swinging almost three feet clear of the carpet as he all too happily explained. "Merchant's apprentice, and only one letter difference in the name. No offense, but it's not the most original disguise."

Isaac let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah, I know."

"Although I'm not sure I'd compare stocks to merchant traders," Ivan added, pondering the page one more time. The ink was surely returning the attention by now.

Isaac chuckled to himself. "Buy low, sell high, right? Felix was questioning the originality, too, though. So far it seems I'm just adding people I know." He swiveled again to face the computer, and started tapping at the keys. When asked what he was doing, his answer was short, simple, and what sounded like the most obvious of statements. "I'm fixing it."

"What?! Wait! No! I didn't say to do _that_!" Isaac's chair audibly squeaked as he slowly turned, one brow raised in question at the suddenly frantic genius. "I was just pointing out that I caught the reference. I didn't mean you had to take me out of it!"

This was met with a slow blink, followed by the equally slow question, "You didn't?"

"No!" Ivan was practically beside himself over the matter. "I mean—I…" He struggled to find the words, and the duo fell into silence as he trailed off. Ivan's downward face was quickly reddening in his embarrassment.

"I-I think… it's really neat… being included with everyone else." He hesitated as a new thought visibly occurred to him. "Could I… well… Does Iwan really have to leave? Could he… maybe… _stay_?" During the last part, Ivan worked up enough courage to look right as Isaac, even if he looked half scared out of his wits to be asking for such a thing.

For several long seconds, Isaac was silent, and Isaac considered. With a slow, reassuring, confident smile, he answered. And it was an answer that made Ivan's face light with a smile to match.

"I can fix that."

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

Jenna drawing in the book may or may not have been inspired by true events, which may or may not have been enacted by my dad and his little sister, and may or may not have involved a first edition novel. Said novel may or may not have also accidentally ended up in a box for Goodwill last year. Obviously, the moral of this story is to draw flip book animations in your sibling's books, so that you may readily entertain yourself with distractions in the event of a zombie apocalypse. (Disclaimer: Yuja is not responsible for the conversion of important reading materials into an alternative media source, nor the subsequent throttling of siblings for such an offense.)

I'd like to say a big **THANK YOU** to last chapter's reviewers, Daidairo, AliasAlliance, BlueStar Sapphire - ProtoZero, Matthew Terra, and Leontinees. I also want to say **THANK YOU** to the people behind the faves and follows, and everyone else who is reading along. Even when the previous chapter was done, I debated if it should be shared, or hidden away on my computer as the writer's block fodder it was created to be. It's still writer's block fodder, don't get me wrong, but I'm very happy to share this bit of randomness when I know there are people out there who are happy reading it.

Until next time!


	3. Gone with the Calories

I'm alive! It's taken almost a year, but I'm alive! I won't bore everyone with reasons for the long wait, but some details are covered over in my DeviantART journal. Speaking of dA, I'm traveling again starting this week, so I'm skipping the usual delay of a few days in uploading to that site for this chapter.

Updated story warning: relationships! The good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The list at the start of chapter one has been updated to reflect this. Disclaimer from first chapter still stands.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

"The Hell am I reading?"

Garet's brows knitted at a sense of déjà vu, but his unenthused glower stayed otherwise firmly in place. His voice didn't express much, either. "Funny you should ask." Yes, a tone of barely contained loathing and contempt counted as "not expressing much". Completely emotionless.

Alex scoffed at some written line that apparently tickled his funny bone. Assuming he had one, that is. "'Evil never prevails'? What kind of ridiculous line is that?" He flipped through the papers to the last page. Garet's jaw clenched at the sound of one page starting to tear at the staple holding it all together. "No wonder Isaac's only in the intro class. This writing style is pure amateur."

"Then how fortunate I'm not here for your opinion," Garet snapped back smartly. He hated Alex so much. There was really only one reason Garet even put up with the jerk.

Or more accurately, one _person_.

A figure glided gracefully into the doorway behind the elder student. "Alex, please stop being mean to my friend." There was no force or question behind the request. If anything, anyone could hear the patient smile behind it without looking. Nonetheless, Alex's response was near immediate.

"I have class. Don't waste too much of her time." The papers were pressed roughly into Garet's chest as Alex shoved past, causing the redhead to take a half step back to stay upright and quickly stop the papers from falling.

Yep. He _really_ did not like that guy.

Mia's voice pulled him back from his angry simmer. "Sorry about him. He stopped by to check on me on his way to class." Her smile turned apologetic. "I know you two don't really get along, but he really is just trying to look out for me."

As much as he wanted to stay mad at Alex, Garet exhaled a deflating sigh. It was really _that_ impossible to stay mad in Mia's presence. For not the first time, he doubted all claims of her being related to such a pompous jerk. "Yeah, well… I brought you a copy of that story I was telling you about. I promise it was way less wrinkled before you-know-who got it." Mia chuckled. It was too airy, Garet noted, and the light cough at the end didn't help. The detail prodded at his earlier frustration in dealing with Alex. Mia may have looked better than when she was in the hospital, especially with her bangs now pulled into their usual braid at the back of her head, but she was obviously still tired.

But, of course, Mia was always tired to some extent.

"I look forward to reading it. Come on inside. My roommate won't be back for a while." She turned and moved to her desk, leaving Garet to enter and shut the door behind them. "Want anything? Alex restocked it all for me yesterday. I think he may have gone a little overboard on the chips, though."

Garet picked up one such bag of flavored potato chips from the bookcase beside him. "Nacho cheese, huh? Somehow, I pegged him as a supporter of salt and vinegar."

Mia made a face. "You wouldn't be wrong. Salt and vinegar isn't too bad, I guess, but only a few at a time. I may take a handful before sending the rest of the bag home with him, but that's it." As she spoke, Garet had pulled open the top seam of the bag. He helped himself to two chips before offering the bag to Mia. She took out a few for herself. The bag itself stayed in Garet's hand. "He probably heard the doctors say something about my sodium levels. He doesn't normally buy me this many salty snacks in one go." She eyed the overstocked bookcase with suspicion, and added, "Or so many sports drinks."

"Yeah?" Garet stuffed a few chips in his mouth, offering the bag to Mia again as he crunched away on the cheesy goodness. Huh, that sounded weird, even in his mind. "Any other concerns we should—you know—be concerned about?"

Mia gave him a stern look over the bag he had successfully passed entirely to her that time. "Garet, as much as I appreciate the concern over my concerns, it's the same as I've already told Alex and the rest of my family. I am very capable of taking care of myself."

Garet unrolled the papers he had forgotten were still in his hand. "Yeah… I know you are." As she turned to check a notification on her laptop, Garet at last took the time to look her up and down completely. From the top of her dark-haired head, to her pale face, to the black rubber treads on her chair wheels, and finally to the thick blanket covering her legs and sweater draped over her shoulders…

She wasn't in perfect health, not by a long shot. But overall she was as well as could be expected.

"But I'm still freaking out Isaac later."

Mia threw a disapproving chip at his smug face.

* * *

Isaac completely failed to notice the knocking at the door. He missed the sound of said door swinging open, and was unfazed by the cool draft of air it created. And he was utterly oblivious to any sound of approaching footsteps.

What his distracted brain did—finally—manage to register, and with a jolt of surprise and stuttered yelp in response, was the sensation of something wrapping around his neck.

Jenna burst out laughing, completely without an ounce of guilt. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you that badly." She loosened her arms, which had been wrapped firmly around his shoulders and neck from behind

Isaac huffed and gave her a very put upon face. "Oh, but you did mean to startle me."

"You know it." She rested her chin on his shoulder. Leave it to Jenna to bypass "reading over your shoulder" and jumping straight to "reading from right on top of your shoulder." It was yet another of her specialties. "Is this the story I've heard so much about?"

Isaac nodded, but his sigh said plenty of things for him. Confidence was not one of those things. "I'm stuck." He scrolled back to the beginning of the chapter, allowing Jenna to reach and tap the down arrow key as she caught up from the start. "Again."

Due to some convenient circumstances, the character Iwan was unable to reunite with his merchant master, and had made a quick return to Robin and Gerald outside of Vault. Unfortunately, the _two sentences_ that contained the _entire_ event were going to need some elaboration. And Garet, with his masterful skill at making things sound far more grandiose than they were, wasn't back from his classes yet. However, that wasn't even the worst part.

"When is this due?"

_That_ was the worst part.

Isaac's head drooped as much as could be possible in Jenna's loose chokehold. "Four hours." Maybe she could tighten that grip around his neck? End the misery?

While Jenna's grip didn't turn lethal (_darn it_), there was definitely a noticeable tensing of the arm muscles. "And you are still adding to the chapter… _why_?"

Isaac grimaced. There was an explanation, surely. But Isaac was muttering and hell if that was going to solve anything.

"Mumble that again, Shakespeare?"

He muttered it slightly louder, but still squeaky and generally incoherent.

"So help me, Isaac, if you do not start making sense-"

"Ivan wanted to stay in!"

The small dorm was oddly silent after. Isaac tried to hide his reddened face under a hand.

"I let him read the chapter, and of course he noticed Iwan was based on him," he clarified. "Garet just got his pencil back for him the other day—the wood one that looks like a wand, you know?—and he's been kind of out of it lately. He asked if his character could stay in, so…" He shrugged one shoulder. "I just don't know why the character would."

Jenna stared at the side of his head for several long seconds, before at last making a thoughtful sound and turning back to the story. She tapped the arrows up and down a few times to reread certain parts. "Iwan's master is a successful merchant?" Isaac nodded. The character's higher status was a very clearly stated fact within the tale, though the exact level was still somewhat obscure. "Well, why not have him get captured and held for ransom? The guy must be worth something if one stick is worth a manhunt. And we all know Ivan's dad is out making the big bucks."

Isaac mulled it over for a long moment, and Jenna was perfectly content to let him.

"Jenna?"

"Isaac?"

"You're a genius."

Jenna grinned. "I know." She ruffled his hair with both hands and hopped back a step to avoid any flailing retaliation. "You got it from here?"

Try as he might, there was no hiding the smile in Isaac's rumbled glare. "Yeah, I've got it. Thanks, Jenna."

Jenna waved over her shoulder as she retrieved her bag from beside the door. "No problem. Just don't die, okay?" Isaac rolled his eyes at the request, and Jenna exited with a laugh and final command. "And eat that lunch!"

Isaac raised a confused brow and swiveled back to his desk. Just when the Hell did a paper bag of take-out food appear?!

* * *

Living in the next building over, it didn't take long for Jenna to reach her door. Even stopping to be audience to a prank setup involving chicken wire and papier-mâché, it was only a few minutes before Jenna was digging out her own set of keys. She knocked twice to give her roommate a heads up, then strolled right on in after unlocking and opening the door. "Hey, you won't believe what those guys down the hall are… doing..." The greeting quickly died on her lips. "Feizhi?"

At the desk against the left wall sat a petite girl with long, dark hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. Her body was turned in the chair at an angle that effectively had her back to the door, and she didn't look up or make any other movement to greet her returning roommate.

At a glance, she seemed to be deeply concentrating on scribbling notes from a thick textbook. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. The catch was the sniffing Jenna had heard upon entering, and a hand motion that hinted way too much at the wiping of eyes.

"Hey, Jenna. How was class?" The greeting itself was light and cheerful. It was the voice that sent up the warning flags. Too high pitched, for one.

"It was alright," Jenna answered slowly. She hung up her jacket and set aside her bag. Feizhi still hadn't turned around. "What about you? Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." After what Jenna assumed was another effort to quickly wipe her eyes, Feizhi finally turned in her seat and gave a shaky smile. The black eyeliner under her left eye was smudged, leaving a faded streak of gray across her temple. "Allergies have been crazy today. Must be the weather changing."

"Yeah." Jenna knew damn well allergies weren't the issue, but she let the poor excuse slide for the time being with a smile of her own. "Must be." She set her bag on the floor and pushed it under the edge of her bed with one foot

"You were saying something was going on outside?"

Jenna opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped by a loud tearing sound and thumps, followed by several whoops and cheers, from the hall. The roommates looked to the door in wide eyed surprise, then back to each other.

"Think we should…?"

"No."

There were loud shouts that sounded suspiciously like a very irate floor R.A. joining the commotion.

"Good idea."

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

See? SEE?! What did I say? Only the third chapter in, and there's drama building up already!

There are a lot of things cropping up that are in some way based on or inspired by real events. Most are minor details, like dorm bookcases being used less for books and more for everything else (a.k.a. junk food!). Other details are more significant, such as Feizhi's troubles. You'll learn more about those later. I know it'll likely look out of character as all get out for now, but I'm hoping the decision to use her for this purpose will ultimately fit the situation, and how she will find her way into Isaac's story. Please don't kill me in the meantime, Feizhi fans!

That being said, please be mindful of the T-rating. It's college. A lot of stuff can go wonderfully right, and a lot can go horrifically wrong. This story is shaping up to have a mix of both.

Finally, while it will be explained later, Mia is not completely wheelchair-bound. She can get up and walk around, and does prefer to do so, but some days a set of wheels just makes life easier. Of the few details I have mapped out for the sake of continuity and consistency, never revealing a specific cause for Mia's overall health is one of them.

Last and certainly FAR from least, **thank you** to the wonderful reviewers, and for the faves and follows. Isaac couldn't continue writing his oddly RPG-like tale without you all.

Ta for now!


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